The Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) is an unfunded Federal interagency organization established for the coordination and sharing of information about language-related activities at the Federal level.

It serves as the premier way for departments and agencies of the Federal government to keep abreast of the progress and implementation of techniques and technology for language learning, language use, language testing and other language-related activities.

Participation in the ILR provides organizations and individuals with:
(1) an assured channel of communication and cooperation among agencies that have common interests in foreign language training and testing;
(2) a centralized forum for the dissemination of language-related information across the government; and
(3) a working network for the mutual sharing of ideas, information and language resources among organizations in government, the academic community, and the private sector.

Participants meet every month from September to June to attend plenary presentations by an ILR organization or guest speakers, to discuss common interests in topic-specific committees and special interest groups and to network with professional colleagues. Attendance at ILR meetings is open to any interested individual, government or civilian. The rationale for what was to become the ILR arose through discussions in 1955 among Howard Sollenberger of the Foreign Service Institute, Clyde Sargent of the CIA Training Division, and James R. Frith, then with the Air Force Language Program and later Dean of FSI’s School of Language Studies, all of whom recognized the need for better coordination and communication in language training and testing among federal agencies. Subsequent meetings included representatives of the local academic community, as well, including Charles Ferguson, then Director of the Center for Applied Linguistics. The ILR continued on a very informal basis until 1973, when a study by the General Accounting Office recognized its value and recommended that it be formally institutionalized.

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ILR plenary meetings

ILR Steering Committe

ILR Training Committe

ILR Testing Committee

Translation and Interpretation Committee

Special Interest Groups

Contributions

Since then, the ILR has evolved into its present loosely coordinated network of Federal, academic and NGO language specialists and managers who share a common goal of improving the nation's capacity to learn, teach and effectively use foreign languages in the national interests.

Meetings are held in the Washington DC metropolitan area, where the majority of the attendees work. However, several frequent attendees fly in from institutions as far away as the West Coast and Canada. Wherever each participant is from, he or she brings to the ILR a unique perspective on the human skills and technology needed to advance the common service within their own organization.

ILR participants find numerous opportunities for sharing information, materials, and expertise across organizational lines in ways that benefit their own agency and the broader ILR constituency.

Sharing takes place in committee meetings that precede the plenary sessions, where participants may raise issues of need or concern, or news of an acquisition or accomplishment that may be shared with other organizations.

COPYRIGHT ILR - 2011